In all this I have one question.. Regarding any of the Remote support Software..How do they perform on a satellite link?

I have been using Teamviewer for a couple of years getting disconcerted with their cost.. and Now if the Australian NBN I am finding a mass of clients being pushed over to Satellite.. And here in lies my issue.. The clients once installed will take ages some times never to log into the Teamviewer server..

Of the list of discussed Application how do they perform over a >900ms sat path+250ms ping to US Servers..ie a 1150ms client to Server ping? but that is the Short path, tail wind, down hill,and no breaks applied, Ping.

If I had one of these clients less than 100km away and in range of Wireless broadband I would be there and testing in a flash. Some of the VNC options look attractive.. except for the user factor

My only experience with satellite links have been unfavourable. Customers on the edge of Lake Ontario here have terrible phone lines so DSL is abysmal. They opt for satellite but, last I dealt with one, the signal is flaky at best.

That said, you take what you get. If a remote connection drops intermittently, you deal with it as best you can, right?

I've been using SimpleHelp for about 4 years now (that reminds me, time to pay my yearly maint. fee in order to get updates).

I have 191 remote access machine connecting to my self hosted "server" (old i3 desktop with 120 Gig SSD and 8 Gigs) that uses about 256 Kbps of bandwidth average depending on how many machines are actually turned on.

I shopped hard before deciding to buy SH when LMI went to limited free, and AVG bought crossloop and shut it down. Both were legitimately free for business use, but as they both went through these changes at about the same time I was looking for something with a more stable model I could build my business on.

I started with 2 Simple-Help session licenses and am now at 5. Great product with frequent, meaningful updates.

Having a file transfer mode, and the diagnostic modes are great help as you can avoid disrupting the customer while transferring files to or from them, editing the registry, and check on running processes without interfering with their desktop session. You can also monitor from 1 to all computers accessing desktop screenshots, CPU & Memory load, disk usage, and any programs that are using significant amounts of the CPU.

One thing I haven't used, but is there, is a "Go to meeting" type conferencing solution.

I feel I made a good decision, and haven't regretted the initial investment, or the yearly maintenance fee that I've purchased. If you're happy with the version you're at after the 1st year after your purchase there's no obligation to pay the maint. fee and the version you have is yours to keep as are the number of licenses you have purchased.

I'm avail on Google Talk if you have any questions as I only make it here to the forums about once a month when I check in to see what's new.